Crickets
by princesslissie13
Summary: What if Edward never came back to Forks, and Jacob was the one she grew to love? Bella never jumped off the cliff, and Alice never saw any reason to come back to Forks. Set about six months after Edward left with his family. FINISHED
1. Chapter 1

This is my first story ever. I really hope you guys like it. And if it wouldn't take up too much of your time, please review, tell me what you would like to see happen next, any constructive criticism is ok, just be nice! Please. I'm new here. You don't want to scare me away, do you? J

**Disclaimer: No matter how much I wish I did, I do not own any part of the Twilight Saga. Except for my Twilight tee shirt. **

**Chapter One**

I sighed loudly in relief as I stacked up my essay and slipped it into my folder. I had been working on that thing for eleven hours straight. I guess I shouldn't have left it to the last minute to write, but who can blame me? I had to write an essay on a movie we watched in science class, called _Creatures of the Namib._ The Namib was a desert. And the creatures in it were about as boring and dried up as the wasteland that they were surrounded by. I should probably stop talking about that essay. I get a headache just thinking about it.

I stood up from my chair and heard my knees crack. I made a face at the sickening sound, then stretched and started to the kitchen for a glass of water. The ice cubes clinked against the glass, and made popping sounds when the water poured in over them. I checked the time on the digital clock on the stove. It read 6:24. Charlie usually got home around six thirty.

Just as I raised my glass to my lips, I heard the familiar crunching of Charlie's tires on the pavement. I set down my water on the counter and walked down the hallway to the door, my socks slipping a little on the smooth surface. I yanked open the door just as Charlie reached for the doorknob and grinned at his shocked face.

" Hi Dad. How was the station today? Any murders?" I teased him, knowing full well that murder in Forks, Washington, was highly unlikely, considering that the population was barely over three thousand people. His face smoothed over quickly.

"Oh yeah. Loads of 'em." He joked, grinning at me. I held the door open for him as he passed, practically throwing his coat on the coat rack on his way to the living room. It started to wobble precariously. I caught it just before it hit the ground, and placed it back upright, taking a few extra seconds to double check that it would not tip over again.

" I got a pizza, Bells!" Charlie called to me. " Thanks!" I said gratefully. "I didn't have time to make dinner because I only just finished my essay a few minutes ago." I was relieved that I didn't have to make dinner after eleven hours of complete TORTURE, and pleasantly surprised, as well. I followed him to the living room, where he had set down the pizza box, already eating his first slice. I sat down next to him on the couch and grabbed a piece of pepperoni from the brown box.

He paused slightly before he spoke. " So, how did it go? Your, essay, I mean." Charlie asked.

" Very slowly. But I got it done." I said, staring at my pizza.

" Oh." Charlie appeared as though he had nothing else to say. He wasn't a very talkative man, and nor was I. We settled into a comfortable silence. He clicked on the TV and started flipping through the channels, until he stopped on a basketball game rerun. I had finished my pizza, and wasn't very eager to sit around and watch sports with Charlie, so

I told him that I was going to get a shower.

My feet carried me to my pocket-sized bathroom. I flicked the light on and looked at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes had dark circles under them, my skin was pale and tired-looking, and my hair was a disaster from my constant running my hands through it in frustration.

I got into the shower, after undressing, and turned the water on as hot as it would go. After showering for a very long time, I finally got out and wrapped a towel around myself. My feet were dragging as I slouched to my room. I was absolutely exhausted. I quickly dressed, towel dried my hair, and hurriedly ran a brush through it. I jumped into bed and was asleep by the time my head hit the pillow.

**So, what did you think? I know it was short and boring, but I had to start the story somewhere! I promise it will get a little bit more interesting next chapter. Please review, tell me what you thought, constrictive criticism, what you want to happen next… it will be very much appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I would like to thank all of you who reviewed! Keep it up! And, yes, this chapter won't be as boring as the last, and probably a little longer, too….. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that has to do with the Twilight Saga… but, man, do I wish I did! Also, I do not own the song lyrics or the song "Calling You" by Blue October. Man, listen to it once and it sticks in your head FOREVER!**

**Chapter Two**

_I was in the forest with Jacob. He was holding my hand and pulling me away from a dazzling bright light. " But, Jake… What is that?" I asked, my voice hitching with nervousness. I strained to get a closer look at it. "C'mon, Bells! We need to leave here, now!" He commanded in a very panicked voice. I squinted my eyes and saw that the light was moving towards us. Then the light began to morph, slowly, into a face. Jacob pulled with more force. _

_Edward. The face was Edward's. " Bella," He called to me, his voice like velvet. "Edward…?" I squeaked. What I was seeing could not be real. Then his face began to fade away, and the light was growing dim. Jacob was still pulling on my hand. "Edward! Come back! EDWARD!" I screamed as his face disappeared. His face had been replaced by James' awful sneer. "You can never escape me. I will always be watching you." He said forcefully. I screamed again as James turned into his real vampire self, not just a vapor as he had been before. He lunged for Jake._

I jolted awake, scared by my vivid dream. It took me a minute to remember that James was dead and I was safe from harm, and that Edward was indeed gone. I collapsed on the bed, sobbing quietly because Edward had left me. I missed the Cullen's. I missed Alice, Emmett, Jasper, Carlisle, Esme, and most of all… Edward. Even seeing Rosalie would have been a blessing. I wanted them back. I remembered times that I had spent with them, only tearing a bigger hole in my heart that had almost been healed.

I had been a hot mess when Sam Uley found me, curled in a ball in the woods. Shaking and trembling and calling for Edward, I had been completely out of it that night. Nightmares began to plague me, all having to do with Edward. Some were scary, others aggravating, and some just about ripped my heart out. Then, Jacob had come along. The nightmares began to lessen, and get less emotional as I spent more time with Jacob and my other friends. We spent more hours than I could count on the beaches of La Push; or in the garage, working on various car and motorcycle projects; even just hanging around with his friends. I was starting to become happy again. Then, my nightmares came back about a week ago. I withdrew from Jacob and my friends. It was all I could muster to act normal to my father. Jacob got worried about me and started calling frequently. Every time he called I let the machine take his message. I didn't want to talk to anyone but… _Edward_.

My sobs continued for about an hour. Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was three in the morning. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I just stared at the ceiling, watching for the first signs of morning. I began to drift off…

CRUNCH, CRUNCH, THUD, THUD, THUD. What the hell? It sounded like someone, or some_thing_ was walking in the woods outside. It had to be heavy, like a bear, because I was sure that a squirrel couldn't make THAT much noise. I walked over to my window and scanned my backyard for any signs of movement. None. I turned around and began to walk back to my bed, confused and curious about what was making all the noise. SNAP. I twig snapped, and it sounded a LOT closer to the house than it had been before. Panicked, I whirled around, facing my window again, and grabbed an autographed baseball bat Charlie gave me for my eighth birthday. I approached the window again, slowly, taking care not to trip over anything or make too much noise. I looked out the glass. Nothing again. Almost like nothing was ever there. Nothing was out of place or missing, and the huge pile of leaves that Charlie had raked up looked the same way it did before.

"Ok Bella, you are officially a loony. Go back to bed," I muttered to myself. Hey, I KNOW I'm not the only one out there who talks to themselves! Shaking my head at myself, I crawled into bed and went to sleep.

When I woke up, again, the clock read nine thirty. I felt a million times better than I had for the past… how long was it? More than a week, probably. It was a Monday on spring break. I went back to school on Tuesday. Oh. Well, I guess I hadn't left it to the last minute to do. Ha! I thought I had school today. I had forgotten that I had one day left of spring break, and finished my essay completely yesterday. I rolled out of bed and a thought occurred to me. I hadn't called Jake in over a week. He's probably all worried. I picked up a cordless phone and dialed his number.

**Jacob POV**

I was freaking out. Bella hadn't talked to me in over a week. Had I done something wrong? Did I upset her? Did she hate me? I was really confused and hoped that Bella wasn't obsessing over that blood sucker again. '_Maybe she's just having a bad week. Give her time, Jake, she'll come around.' _I tried to convince myself. I hoped she was okay. Maybe she got grounded. There were about a million plausible reasons why she hadn't called me back. I took a moment and analyzed what I had just thought. '_Jake, you are turning into a lovesick teenager. She may not even love you back. Get a grip, Jake!' _I mentally scolded myself for acting so obsessive. I needed to find something to do, and fast before I started imagining Bella in ways a friend shouldn't be imagining their friend.

I walked out to the garage and started to fiddle with the two motorcycles Bella had brought with her one day. She had wanted me to fix them up for us to ride later. I had been confused; calm, sane, cautious Bella would never had approved of something like that. I think she had gotten better about the leech and didn't miss him as much as she did before. My heart ached when she cried over him, but I wasn't sad that the jerk was gone. I was sad because Bella was sad. We had a strange bond; Bella and I. Whenever Bella was sad, so was I, and vice versa. When she was happy, I was happy with her. And when she got really ticked off, so did I. But just because we were feeling the same emotions, we weren't feeling them for the same reasons.

As I tightened a bolt on one of the motorcycles, I wondered what she was doing, how she was feeling, and if she was thinking of me. I heard a song on the radio that were along the same lines that I was thinking at the moment that went something like this:

_**I will keep calling you to see**_

_**If you're sleeping are you dreaming?**_

_**If you're dreaming are you dreaming of me?…**_

I liked the song, but the next line said, _**" I can't believe you actually picked me."**_ and then I didn't like it as much anymore. I mean, Bella hadn't chosen me. Yet. '_She'll come around, I know she will. Bella's a bright girl and she'll figure it out sooner or later that I'm in love with her. It's all a matter of time. Right now, and until she figures it out, all I can be is a friend to her, and that'll have to be good enough.' _I thought.

Just then, I heard the phone ringing across the garage. I sighed and got up. It was like trying to navigate through a maze as I stepped over various car parts, tools, empty soda cans, and stools, and by the time I got to the phone (hooray!) it was on the third ring. I picked up.

" Hello?" I said.

" Hey, Jake." said a very familiar voice. My heart leapt. " BELLA!" I shouted, too excited to lower my voice. " What happened? Are you okay?" I asked, panic flooding my voice.

" Yeah, Jake, everything's fine now." She said, with a little bit of sadness in her voice.

" You sure? You never answered my calls," I questioned, in a way that reminded me of how my mother used to talk to me. " Oh, yeah. I was… having a bad week." Bella said uncertainly. She continued " I'm sorry about ignoring you. I just wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone… I feel bad about it." She said, her voice falling just the tiniest bit. " It's okay, Bells, everyone has those. I understand." I said, hoping to lift her mood. "You want to hang out?" She asked tentatively.

" Yeah! I'm in the garage right now if you want to come over… or we could go to the beach if you don't want to sit around and watch me work for three hours straight." I joked with her. She laughed. I felt a small swell of pride in hearing her laugh, knowing that I was the cause of it.

" Oh, no. The garage is fine. I don't want to make you drop everything just to see me." She said, a bit of her laughter still in her voice. " All right." I replied, grinning.

" I'll see you in… umm… about forty-five minutes?" She said.

" Okay. Goodbye, beautiful." I said in a joking tone, even though I really did think she was beautiful.

She giggled again. " Bye, Jake." I listened until she hung up.

I was excited to see Bella again, but the forty- five minutes couldn't go by fast enough. Oh, give me a break. I hadn't seen her or heard from her in over a week. I tried to focus on my work and not on Bells, but my mind kept drifting back to her, and I kept hearing her tinkling laughter echoing around in my ears. Fed up with the voices in my head, I stood up from my crouched over position and lumbered over to the mini, beat up fridge to get a soda. As soon as I pulled out the can, it slipped out of my hand and crashed on the ground. Stupidly, I picked up the can and opened it. I jumped in surprise as it sprayed in my face. I cried out in frustration. I wiped off the soda on my face and grimaced as I looked down at my shirt. It was soaked through with the liquid. I pulled the shirt over my head and growled as I walked back to the house in search of a new shirt.

On my way to my bedroom, I passed the kitchen, where my dad was. He was obviously amused at my… sticky appearance. " Jake? What'd you do to yourself, boy? Soda is for drinking, not taking baths with." He trying - and failing - to conceal his laughter. " Yeah. Thanks for the tip, Dad." I said coldly to him. Oblivious to my icy tone, he kept on chuckling to himself, loud enough that I could hear him all the way to the bathroom, where I washed off my face from where the soda had squirted me. I threw on a shirt, and then went back out to the garage. I avoided the fridge and got back to work.

After a few minutes of trying to fix one of the engines on the motorcycles, I heard the distinguishable roaring of Bella's truck. I grinned to myself.

**Ok, I had to stop here to leave you all wondering how their day would go. So, again, this chapter was a little slow, but not as slow as last chapter. So, please, review, review, REVIEW! Oh, and tell me about any suggestions you have as to where the story should go, and what you think would be cool to see happen in the story. I might just like your ideas enough to put them in!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, I know it's been a while since I last updated… I had a lot of things planned with my family one after the other so I haven't really had a chance to write! I am so very sorry I kept my readers waiting! Also, I wanted to thank all of my reviewers, especially emmetlover4everandalways and Twisted Musalih, who reviewed for both chapters! Keep it up guys! And a reminder: Jake hasn't become a werewolf yet. This was before that happened. It will happen soon, though. I don't really go crazy over researching every little detail in New Moon, and some things I changed to make the story work.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has to do with Twilight, and I bow before the great Stephanie Meyer, who has captivated the world with all of her mystical and attractive creatures. **

**Chapter Three**

**Bella POV**

As my 1953 Chevy truck crunched down the gravel path of Jacob's driveway, the butterflies that had been fluttering in the pit of my stomach for the whole drive to La Push suddenly intensified. I had no explanation as to why they were there. I mean, Jacob would forgive me, right? He sounded really happy to see- well, _hear-_ from me. So no reason to worry, right? Right?

I was overreacting. Everything would be fine. Jacob and I would have a good day "at rehab" as Jake and I called it whenever we hung out together. He was my sunshine, my sliver of brightness and happiness in my world, which was currently bleak and depressed. I felt like a whole new person when I was with him. A happier, more outgoing person. I had no idea what we were going to do today, but whatever we did, I was determined to have fun and forget about Edward, even if it would last for only a couple of hours.

I looked around Jake's yard for him, and I couldn't see him. I stepped- or rather fell- out of the truck and shut the door. I still couldn't see him. '_ Must be in the garage,'_ I thought. I mean, when wasn't he in there?

I twisted the knob on the door that led into his garage and pushed the door open, causing the butterflies to flutter even more fiercely in my stomach. There he was, bent over one of the motorcycles that I had forced him to fix up. I don't think he minded being " forced" into working on them, though. Scratch that, I _knew_ he _loved_ working on them. His whole face lit up when he saw the two rusty old bikes in the back of my truck.

He looked up at the sound of the door being opened. He grinned broadly at me. " Hey, Bells!" He said excitedly. Before I could get a chance to defend myself, Jacob rushed up to me and pulled me into one of his signature bear hugs. Even though it crushed me a little too tightly against his chest, I didn't mind it. I liked the embrace, actually. It made me feel safe and secure, almost as though there was nothing wrong with the world; everything was just perfect. I grinned into his broad shoulder. I started to feel a little… lightheaded.

" Jake-can't-breathe! Let go!" I managed to choke out of my very squished windpipe.

He immediately released me. " Sorry Bells, I guess I just don't know my own strength." His smile was a strange mixture of smugness and sheepishness. " Let's get to work." He said, still grinning a little.

" Fine with me." I said neutrally. "How are the bikes coming along?" I said as he grabbed my hand and led me through his very cluttered garage to the rusty old bikes, which didn't look as old and rusty as they did before. He had one of the bikes propped up and had various parts scattered around it. He sat down on a worn stool with his legs spread, and bent over the vehicle.

" Well, I'm still working on them. I'm not even finished with one… Some of the parts have rusted up so bad that I'll need replacements for them. Bella, you sure do know how to pick the crappiest bikes out there." He joked with me. I didn't feel bad, though. I knew that being a "mechanic" was what he loved to do most, and bringing him the rusted bikes would only mean he would get to work on them longer. I had my benefits, too. Being with Jacob made the giant hole in my chest seem a little less giant than it had been before. He is definitely the best friend, and closer to me than all of my friends at school.

" Jake, you take as long as it needs to fix those two pieces of crap up. I just can't wait to ride them. You'll have to teach me how, though. I've never ridden one before." I said.

" Really? You have never ridden on a motorcycle in your whole, LONG life?" He said, trying to agitate me. " Hey! I'm not much older than you!" I said, smacking him on the arm. He laughed at my feeble attempts to hurt him. " Bella, you're so weak! You couldn't hurt me if you tried!" He mocked me, but not in a mean way. He said it kind of like he thought it was cute how weak I was. I snarled at him. My eyes were probably bugging out as I realized that it sounded just like Edward's. We were quiet. I could feel the tears pricking at my eyes. I blinked rapidly, trying to keep the tears from spilling over the brim of my eyes.

" Bella? Are you okay? I was only joking about how you were weak. I bet you could really hurt me if you tried." Jacob's voice was softer, and concerned. He leaned towards me and put his hand hesitantly on my shaking back. I tried to conceal my feelings, I really did, I didn't want him to see me hurting. It began to feel like the very first night without Edward, all over again.

" I have to go." My voice broke on the word 'go'. Jake snatched my hand before I could walk away. " Bella, you just got here! You can't leave now!" He said, perhaps a little louder than necessary and clenched my hand tighter. Then, realization struck his face. His expression softened. " Bella, this is about _him_, isn't it?" He said, letting go of my hand.

" Yes." I said. I began sobbing uncontrollably. Without another word, he was hugging me, stroking my hair, rubbing my back. I don't know how long we stood there like that; hours, days, years? It felt like an eternity to me.

When I finally pulled away from him, I became ashamed of myself for sobbing like a two-year-old in front of Jake.

" Bella," He breathed, rubbing my jaw line with his thumb. I looked him in the eyes, and he looked back, and I could see the fire blazing in them. I was entranced. He tilted his head the tiniest bit to the side and closed his eyes, as if to kiss me, and I was instantly snapped out of it. I pushed myself away again. " Sorry about that. I really need to control that. It's like every little thing reminds me of him, and then- waterworks." I said, blushing.

" It's okay, Bells." He said, also embarrassed about our almost kiss. He cleared his throat. " So, seriously, you have never been on a motorcycle? I'll have to change that." He said, like I hadn't been crying hysterically two seconds ago, and like we hadn't almost kissed. You gotta love the guy.

" Yeah, but I'm definitely willing to learn." I said with a laugh. The rest of the day with Jake was spent laughing, talking, and drinking coca cola.

It was growing dark outside. I slapped my forehead, having completely forgotten that I had a life outside of Jake, and that Charlie had probably either died of starvation, or died of his own cooking by now. " Oh, crap, Jake! I gotta go! Charlie's probably wondering where the hell I am! I didn't tell him where I was because I thought I would be back home by now!" I shrieked like a madwoman at poor Jake.

" Oh, okay Bella. See you later!" Jake said to me.

" Thanks for, you know, everything. I really appreciate it." I said as I jogged to the door, and shut it behind me.

But what I didn't hear is Jake's muttered " You're welcome." a second after I closed the door in his face.

I ran to my car, tripping over a rock but catching myself before I could fall. I literally flung open the door and jumped inside the car. The engine started with an animal-like roar. I was gone in five seconds, shooting down the deserted road that led back home.

Fifteen minutes later, I had turned into the driveway, and saw that Charlie's car was parked in the driveway. Great. Just great.

I yanked my key out of the truck and slowly walked up the stairs to the front door. Charlie will probably yell and eventually ground me. I turned the knob and walked in to front door. " Charlie?" I called

He suddenly appeared in the hallway, looking panicked. Then he relaxed. Then he tensed again. " Bella! Where were you?" He shouted.

" I was at Jake's, Dad. I thought I would be back by now, so I didn't call you to tell you that I was leaving. Charlie didn't look any more relaxed. " Bella, you can't just -"

" -What, Dad? Did you think that I had gone off to a club or something and gotten drunk? Dad, that's not me. You know I would never do something like that." I said loudly. I took a deep breath to calm myself and continued, " Dad, I'm not a little kid anymore. I'm almost a legal adult, but you still act like I'm thirteen. I know, I should have called you anyways, and that was my mistake. But, you know, Dad, I do have a cell phone, and I gave you my number, so if you don't know where I am, you can always call me. I leave it on all the time." I said smoothly.

" Bella. Do you have any idea of how worried I was? I didn't think you had gone to a club. I thought you had been kidnapped, or… worse. There have been a series of strange murders that haven't been solved yet, and everyone at the station was warned by other towns of a possible serial killer. I was worried that had happened to you." He said softly.

" Oh. Well, I'm sorry, Charlie. I will call you next time, I swear." I said sincerely. I felt bad that I had worried Charlie like that. I would be mad if I was in his shoes, too. He looked like he wasn't mad anymore. " So, what do you want for dinner?" I asked.

**Yay! I'm done! Please, review! Any comments, questions, or even if you flamed me, that would all be fine. I just want some sort of feedback! **


	4. Chapter 4

**I know it's been a long time since I last updated, and I apologize for that. School started and I've been really busy since then. I will be too busy to update as often as I have been, so you can expect updates in the future about once every two weeks. I know, I hate it too, but school and family always comes first. **

**Disclaimer: I am very disappointed to say that I don't own anything that has to do with Twilight. Not even Jacob. **

**Chapter Four**

**Bella POV**

I jolted awake to the loud, obnoxious sound of my alarm clock. Then I realized that it was Monday morning. I groaned as I slipped out of the warm sheets on my bed. I dressed slowly, deliberating for a long time on what to wear. I decided on a pair of dark skinny jeans with a white henley from Aeropostale. I wore black flats for shoes.

I went down to the kitchen, and found a note on the counter. It read:

_Bella, _

_Had to leave early. Got a call about a strange murder that occurred last night. They wanted me to check it out. I'll be back home at the normal time._

_-Charlie_

'_Well, that's weird. The people at the office normally handle it themselves. It must be pretty serious.' _I thought as I read the note. I shrugged it off as I reached for the cereal box.

Once I was all ready to go to school, I grabbed my bag and headed out to my truck. It roared to life, probably waking up everybody in the neighborhood. I started down the now familiar driveway, and turned on to the road that led to the road Forks High was on. I flipped on the radio, and found my favorite station. It was playing " California Gurls" by Katy Perry. I grinned to myself. Jess absolutely _loved_ that song. I would catch her singing that song under her breath in class sometimes, and whenever it was on, the would dance like a maniac to it. " Oh, Jess." I said fondly to myself.

I turned on the road that the school was on. Then, I saw a white blur run across the street. I blinked, and it was gone. I slammed down on the brakes. I searched the forest for any signs of movement, but didn't see anything. I shuddered as I thought that the blur had resembled a human- or vampire- form. I pressed down on the gas, still shaken about what had happened. I finished the drive to school, slowly, still searching for the mysterious white blur.

I pulled into the parking lot, which was empty of people, and slammed the door to the car behind me. I took my bag and started to the entrance. As soon as I walked through the school doors, I was practically attacked by Jess and Angela.

" Bella, Bella, where were you? The bell's about to ring!" Angela screamed at me in one ear, while Jess yelled in the other " Bella, I was worried that you, like, died or something! Don't you ever do that to me again!" I blinked in surprise. " I'm not that late, am I?" I questioned them.

" Yes, yes, you are! The bell's gonna ring in like, two seconds!" Jess shouted.

" All right, all right! I'm sorry! I won't be late to anything ever again in my life!" I grinned at them. "Let's get to class, quick." I said, grabbing their elbows and towing them to homeroom.

As the school day progressed, I became less and less worried about the white blob. Within a few days, I had pretty much forgotten about it. I mean, seriously, Edward was not coming back for me. He had moved on, and I was… well, I was trying to. I would have some really good days where I almost completely forgotten about him, and then there were some really bad days when I couldn't get him and his gorgeous face out of my mind. Angela and Jess had suggested that I get together with a new boy so I could forget about Edward. I told them their theory was probably right, but there wasn't anyone that I was really interested in at the moment. They had assured me that they would keep their eyes peeled for someone cute that I didn't know.

I was in biology class, where I still sat alone. Mike Newton had offered to sit with me several times, and I turned him down every time, saying I couldn't focus with him there, I had a headache and would rather be left alone, I had even gone so far as to say that I was having really bad gas to make him get away from me. The teacher droned on about something; not noticing that some boys at the back of the classroom were sword fighting with their pencils, and that several people were simply zoning out from what he was saying. One kid had even fallen asleep. I looked out the window at the woods and remembered all those times when Edward and I had been zooming through them at impossible speeds. I remembered the time when he convinced me that I was in no danger of getting sick or hitting a tree.

The bell rang, startling me and interrupting my train of thought. I grabbed my stuff and headed to my locker. I lifted the handle and pulled, squeaking it open. School was finally out for the day. I put my books in my bag and checked my reflection in the mirror that Jess had stuck in my locker, insisting me to use it once in a while. I shut my locker and walked out to my car.

As I pulled up to my driveway, I saw not only Charlie's police cruiser, but another car that I didn't recognize. I frowned to myself, thinking about who it could be in the car. Strangely, part of me hoped it was Jacob. I pulled open the door and stepped inside the house, to be greeted by muffled voices coming from somewhere nearby. Curious, I followed the voices to the living room, where I found my father, Billy Black, and Jacob. My heart jumped into my throat when I locked eyes with him. I was so confused. Why was I having this sort of reaction whenever I saw him? I began to panic. We were the best of friends, we always have been. Why am I all of a sudden so jittery and nervous when I see him? Before I knew it, I began mentally commenting on how beautiful his eyes were, how hard his jaw line was, how smooth his hair was. I wasn't attracted to him… Right?


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry that the updates have been taking so long. I have been hyper scheduled ever since school started. Today has been the first day in a while when I haven't had to be somewhere! **

**Keep in mind that Bella doesn't know about wolves yet. All she knows is vampires. So anyways, thanks so much to all my faithful readers. Hope you like it! Oh and by the way, I made a new character (one of Jacob's friends) called Quinn. I don't know if he's gonna be a major person, but I wanted to put a little twist on my story, and make it different from all of the other Bella/Jacob stories out there.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own, yadda, yadda, yadda… don't sue me, yadda, yadda, yadda…**

**Chapter Five**

"Bella!" Jacob exclaimed when he saw me. He ran up to me and gave me one of his bone-crushing hugs. His chest was as solid as a rock, which I hadn't noticed before. I tried to push myself away from him. He noticed and released me with a sheepish grin on his face.

"Thanks." I said, smiling back at him. "So, what's up?" I asked. "By that, do you mean why am I here?" He responded with a smirk on his face.

"Well… errr… yeah. I mean, not that I don't… appreciate your company or anything… but um, why are you… here all of a sudden?" I sputtered out, stumbling over my words in embarrassment.

Jake smiled at my lack of composure and placed a warm hand on my cheek. "I'm here because today is Dad's birthday. Charlie invited us over here for the afternoon." Jacob explained to me. 'Of course! How could I have forgotten! Charlie has been talking about today for the last week!'

"It's nice to know you remembered today, Bella." Billy rolled into the hallway with a warm grin that matched his son's. "Billy! I'm so sorry I forgot! Gosh, I feel awful! I wish I had-" Billy interrupted my rant. "Bella, it's okay. I'm not mad at you. It's all good. Don't worry about it. I'm sure you've been very busy." I smiled in relief at him.

The next few hours were spent in front of the television watching the game, (what a shocker!) cracking open soda bottles, crinkling bags of chips, and laughing at mostly stupid things. It was like we were all high off each other's presence. All of our faces were red from chuckling and blushing. The night ended with a cake that Charlie had bought from Hannaford's on the way home. We sang the birthday song loudly and off-key, but to me, Billy had never looked so happy in the time I had known him.

I watched out the window as Billy and Jacob drove away. They honked as they pulled out the drive. Smiling to myself and humming a tune, I went up to my room. After showering, I crawled back into bed. As I was trying to fall asleep, I thought about that mysterious blob I had seen on the road. The more I thought about it, the less it looked like a vampire and the more it had looked like a… bear of some sorts. A bear? But no, could a bear be white? Well, yes, it could. Maybe it had been a polar bear? No, that was stupid. Polar bears could not move that fast. It could have been a really big bird. But, could birds move as fats as the blob had been going? It was too close to the ground, it could not have been a bird.

I fell asleep thinking about that. Sometimes, overnight, your brain can work these things out while you're sleeping, and I think that's what mine did. I woke up in the night, panting and in a cold sweat, like I had another nightmare. But the nightmare didn't have anything to do with Edward.

_I was at La Push beach, with Jacob. We were walking along the shoreline, picking up flat rocks and trying to skip them across the water. I looked up at Jacob. "Hey, check that out!" I pointed to the white blob that was moving very quickly, just inside the edge of the forest that surrounded the beach. He looked to where I was pointing. When his head turned away, the blob stopped mid stride, like it was a movie and someone had pressed the pause button. It was a wolf. A white wolf. One eye turned slowly to lock with mine. They looked like a human's. Then, someone had pressed the imaginary play button, and it was off again, gone in the blink of the eye. _

I gasped, running a hand through my hair. The thing I had seen was a wolf! There was no doubt in my mind that it was a wolf. A thought came into my mind. Was I obsessing over this a little too much? Maybe I was. I decided to let it go…

The week passed by like any other week, and without any sightings of the 'wolf', I wasn't all preoccupied with the thought that Forks was once again becoming populated with mystical beings. I went out with Angela, Jess, Mike, Eric, and Jacob, who brought along some of his friends from La Push. We had a ball, everybody got along really well. I even caught Jess making out with one of Jacob's friends, his name was Quinn, according to Jacob. I had only just met him tonight, because apparently he just moved here over the winter.

My thoughts weren't on Edward either. I hadn't thought of him in a while, and I was starting to feel the hole in my chest mend. I guess laughter is the best medicine, because I had been doing a lot of that lately. When I was all alone, I didn't feel depressed like I used to. Although, maybe that was because I did things to occupy my mind like singing loudly and off key, or making up silly poems about Jess and Angela, which I would sometimes slip in their lockers. I was beginning to feel more like myself- scratch that, I was feeling better than I had before. I wasn't an outcast o a loner or a leper, but I wasn't incredibly popular or attention-seeking either. I just felt good.

Although Edward hadn't been on my mind, I would always feel like something was missing, like there was a void to fill. I felt like something was wrong; I have ever since he left. But I ignored it. Again, singing loudly and thinking up stupid poems took it off my mind.

I was in the middle of "Dancing With the Stars" when the phone rang. I grunted softly as I stood up. I had been sitting on the couch for an hour straight, not moving, and my butt hurt because of it. I picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey there, sunshine. You sound like you were sleeping." It was Jacob, bright and cheery as usual. I could tell he was smiling through the phone.

"No. I was watching "Dancing With the Stars" and forgot to move the entire time. My butt hurts." I complained, sounding very much like a two-year-old. Jake chuckled.

"TMI, Bella. I don't really need to know that." He said, still laughing at me.

I sighed. "So, what's up?" I asked, trying to ignore the chuckles resonating from the phone.

"Well, I'm calling because I have nothing to do, and I don't feel like sitting all day on the couch, watching reruns of "Dancing With the Stars" like someone else I know." He said mischievously. If he was there in person, I would have tried to hit him.

"Humph. Well then." I huffed "What were you thinking of doing? Just hanging out? Is that all you want?" I changed my tone to something a bit more polite than the one I had just been using.

"Yeah… you know… just you, me, and the fuzzy TV. screen." Jacob finished with a strange tone to his voice. "If you're not comfortable with that, then I can always call up Embry or something." He said nervously, quickly covering himself.

I laughed softly at his obvious desire to spend time with me. "Sure, why not? The TV. won't make me feel uncomfortable." I said, trying to make a joke out of the awkward situation.

"Cool." Jake declared, letting out a long blow of air. "See you later, dude." He said. The line went dead. I grabbed a pop tart on my way out the door.

The road to Jacob's house was bumpy, and with my prehistoric truck added to the mix, let's just say that I was a little shaken up by the time I got to Jacob's house. My stomach started to ache as soon as I pulled in his drive. 'Ugh, why did I have to eat before I got here?' I asked myself. The pain intensified when I tried to move myself to a more comfortable position. I was now stopped and parked in Jacob's driveway. I took a deep breath and braced myself for the pain that would come with trying to get out of the car.

I jumped out, and a fresh wave of nausea hit me like someone had punched my gut. Clutching on to my stomach tightly as if that would dull the sore and throbbing place, I forced myself to move my legs, which felt like Jell-o, toward the garage. It was odd that just the bumpy ride to Jacob's had caused this much discomfort. I tried to ignore the aching, and soon enough, it vanished.

Jacob was working on a car when I walked in the garage. He looked up and smiled. "Hey Bells!" He took out a blackened cloth and wiped off his hands, which were also dirty from working on the car. "Hey, Jake." I said, making my way to him. I sat down on a very beaten up stool next to him.

"So, what do you want to do?" He turned so he was facing me. "Um… I don't really know. What were you thinking of?" I said slowly.

"Do you want to hang out with the guys and me at La Push?" He offered. I really liked hanging around Jacob and his friends. They were really funny and nice, and they accepted me easily. Now I was as good as one of them. "Sure!" I said brightly.

"Cool. Let's get going, then." Jacob pushed away from the stool and grabbed my hand as he passed me, dragging me along in his wake. Jacob was beginning to really grow on me. I always felt good with Jacob. I liked to be around him. And, to add to his awesome personality, he was really cute. 'No, no, no, no, NO! Stop thinking about his like that!' I thought aggressively. I couldn't let myself fall for him. After what happened last time, I couldn't afford to go and throw all cautions to the winds like I did with Edward. I got hurt, and I didn't want to get hurt again. What was happening to me? Why am I all of a sudden so smitten with him? It wasn't like this a few weeks ago!

I tried to push my jumbled up thoughts to the back of my mind. I was going to have a good time with Jacob, my FRIEND. Not my lover. We were just friends. Just friends. Nothing more. That's all. Done.

"What's wrong, Bella? You look kind of agitated. If you don't want to hang out today, we don't have to." He said, his voice saddening at the end.

"No, no Jake. It's nothing. I want to hang out, I really do. Don't worry about me. I just… have a headache. I'll be fine. Really." I said quickly, trying to cover myself up. He looked a little skeptical, but I could tell that he dropped it. "Oh, okay." He put his arm around my shoulders and guided me to his car.

I would have to think about this later. My job right now was to look like I was having a ball with Jacob's friends. And I would.

**Yay! Done with this one! This chapter took a little longer than expected, but I finished it up. The next chapter should be a little more interesting than this. This one was a filler sort of. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry! I haven't updated in forever, and, for those of you that haven't noticed, I have a new story going, called My Ending and Beginning. It's really good (in my opinion) and you should check it out.**

**Also, I would be very grateful if you guys could check my profile and do the poll that's up there! It has to do with MEAB, and it's really important! You don't have to read the story to complete the poll.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own twilight**

**If I did, it wouldn't be right**

**Do I have to spell you the words**

**You know, when you accuse me it really hurts!**

**And that was my amazing disclaimer rap! Word, yo! And yaa… it didn't really rhyme that good either… hehehe!**

"You know I know how… to make them stop and stare as I zone out… the club can't even handle me right now-" Jake sang loudly and off key to me as we bumped along the dirt road to La Push beach, where all the guys were hanging out today. He was trying to get on my nerves so bad that I could practically taste it in the air. And… it was kind of working. But it was also really funny.

"Jake! You sing like a drunken pirate!" I said, half laughing, and half irritated. He laughed at my creative vocabulary.

"Oh, I don't sing nearly as bad as you do. I think you break the charts on that one, Bella."

"Well, you break the charts for being the most annoying person on the planet!" I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest.

He put a hand over his heart, put on a show of looking hurt. "That cuts deep, Bella. How could you say such a lie? And even more importantly, how could you say it to _me_? I thought you loved me more than that." He ended with a pout. My heart pounded. I was already paranoid about not loving him, and him saying those words to me scared me. _'I don't love him. I like him as a friend, but nothing more. He's just kidding around, he doesn't mean it.' _

I chuckled nervously. "Yeah, yeah. I like you, alright? Don't get all emotional on me. And keep your eyes on the road! You're gonna be the death of me, Jacob Black!" I pointed to the road, changing the subject.

"Yes, mother hen." He said sarcastically. He moved his head to face the windshield, though. Two seconds later, and he was singing loudly again.

"Jake!" I groaned, putting my head in my hands.

"Bella, seriously, what's up? You don't seem like yourself at all. Did I offend you? You know I was joking, right?" He said, sounding concerned, and slightly upset.

"No, no, Jake. I'm not upset. Sorry if I was being…" I trailed off, not wanting to go farther. Jake smiled at me. And I feared that he could tell what I was thinking about.

"You'll get over him, Bella. You just need some TLC. I know that one day you'll move on. Today just isn't the day. And when that day comes, I hope you'll choose someone better than… him." His nose wrinkled at the end of the sentence, remembering Edward.

I was beyond relieved that he had been dead wrong in his assumption that I was depressed about Edward. "Yeah…" Then, the beach came into view. "Yay! We're here! I can finally get away from your singing!" I cheered. He laughed. We jumped out of the car and grabbed our stuff out of the back. Jake pulled his shirt off over his head and threw it in the trunk, before he closed it. His abs were defined, and his biceps were toned as well. _'Don't start drooling, Bella. It's just a chest. A nicely toned chest. Nothing to get all gaga about.'_ A part of my mind snapped at me, like a mother would do when her daughter was having an emotional breakdown. I quickly looked away and followed him to the beach.

We soon spotted the Quileute guys, they were the biggest people there. They waved us over to their little section of the beach. There were some girls there, too. Emily and Leah, and a girl that I haven't seen before. As soon as Jacob put his bag down, the guys ushered him over so they could divide teams for a football game. I rolled my eyes at them, and sat down next to Emily and the girl.

"Hey Emily. I haven't seen you in a while!" I said warmly to her. She was laying on a towel in a bikini.

"Hey, Bella. Have you met Sarah? She's Quinn's sister." She said, nodding her head at Sarah.

"Hey Sarah. When did you move here?" I asked, wanting to know. Her brother didn't really want to talk about that before, only wanted to "talk" to Jess. He seemed all right, though.

"I moved here in January. It was such a smart decision, moving to Washington in the middle of the winter. I used to live in Florida, so the temperature change was a little traumatizing. But I survived." She joked with me. I liked Sarah already and I barely knew her.

"Yeah, the winters in Forks are pretty scary. I know how you feel, because I used to live in Arizona." I agreed with her.

"Well, I've lived here all my life, so I have no idea what you guys are complaining about. If you want to see a real winter, try going to Alaska! Oh my gosh, it's so cold! I froze my butt off every time I stepped outside of our little igloo." Emily declared.

"When did you go to Alaska?" Sarah asked as she pushed a piece of hair behind her ear.

"I went with Paul and Jared and Sam and Leah. We decided to do something crazy, so we bought tickets and flew to Alaska. And I'm not kidding you, we stayed in an igloo one night. The boys insisted. Well, don't ever do it. It's… well, it was sort of nice when Sam was cuddling me. But everyone else, even the guys, admitted that it was awfully cold, The rest of the trip we stayed in a hotel." Emily laughed as she told the story.

"Sounds like fun." I said. "I kind of want to try that now. I'll go out in my backyard and build myself an igloo when it snows enough." I grinned.

"Oh my god, that sounds like so much fun! We should totally do that! We could have one igloo for the girls, and one for the guys. Then we can sneak out in the middle of the night to scare the guys while they're sleeping. I did that once, except it was at summer camp and there were no igloos." Sarah concluded.

We were talking and laughing for about an hour while we watched the boys play football. Then, the game got weirdly funny to us, and we started laughing about the guys and how they looked so funny when they ran and other things that wouldn't seem so funny normally. Eventually, the boys got tired of hearing us laughing lie crazy and interrogated us about it.

"What's so funny?" Sam asked us, a tone of mild annoyance in his voice.

Another peal of laughter ripped its' way out of my throat, and then we were all rolling on the ground, laughing madly. I wasn't sure what we were laughing at, but it was just so funny.

"Guys, seriously, what are you laughing at?" Embry questioned, sounding honestly curious. Guys just didn't get it. We could be laughing at absolutely nothing. We could be laughing just to laugh.

"I- have- no- idea!" I choked out through my chortling. Breathing was becoming more and more difficult as our giggling escalated to a point where we sounded like dying hyenas.

I honestly think that the boys got jealous of our laughing and annoyed that we wouldn't give them a straight answer. That's why they did it. They went off, muttering to themselves with a look that indicated to outsiders that they had no idea what was going on, either. I didn't know where they were going or what they were going, and I had no idea what was happening until it happened.

We had been laying on our towels the whole time that we were there, so we had no idea that the water was freezing cold. We also had no idea that they boys were going to dump it all over us.

"Hey, Bella, guess what?" Jacob said, with a tone of mischief in his voice. I was still chuckling along with Emily and Sarah.

"What?" I said, still laughing a little. I looked up at him and swish! A bucket of ice-cold water came pouring down on my head. Then, Jacob dropped the bucket on my head and ran away like he was being chased by a serial killer, or something.

I could hear Emily and Sarah screaming on either side of me, but I wasn't focused on them. I was focused on the back of Jacob's head, which was still running away from me. I was so mad. Well, not that mad, but determined to get him back.

"JACOB BLACK! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" I screeched at him, water still dripping from my hair and face.

With a feral snarl, I pushed myself up off the sand and ran like a professional sprinter after him, and brought the bucket with me. The other girls followed my actions, all tearing off after the guys that had splashed them.

He turned his head around and caught sight of me running like a roadrunner after him. He let out a little yelp and sped up. He was so fast, and due to that and the fact that sand had absolutely zero traction, I lost him. They were running to fast for us.

"That's not fair! You all have an advantage over us!" Emily called, out of breath.

"What advantage? How are they better than us?" I asked, confused about what she had said.

"Uhhh… they have been… running… all summer long on the beach. They are all trained and we're not." Emily said quickly.

"Oh. Well, I didn't know that." I said, letting the case drop. We all wandered back to our towels, and discussed ways to get the guys back.

"Paul is so gonna get it. I will never forgive him for that. And Jared, too." Sarah said, pounding her fist into her hand with a vengeance that I hadn't seen in her before. When she had sat down on her towel, it was still wet. She told us that they had taken a huge bucket that was normally used to store toys in and carried it up and dumped on her head. They both had to carry it because it was so heavy.

Once they guys came back, we gave them a lot of crap about what they had done. We told them that we would get them back, and they would get it when they expected it least.

"None of you are safe from us. You better watch out, 'cause me and Bella and Sarah can pounce on you anytime, anywhere. Like a puma." Emily said, half laughing and half serious.

"Yeah. You had better be on the lookout at all times. We might get you while you're sleeping." Sarah added, causing them to get looks of disbelief on their faces.

"Oh, I'm so scared. Jared, hold me!" Quinn said, with a mock tone of fear in his voice.

"Just you wait. Then you'll really want Jare-bear to hold you." I teased, causing Jared's face to flush with color.

We all settled down, and would up sitting around a campfire that Sam, Quil, and Jare-bear had made. We were all goofing around, and changing the words to some campfire songs to make it really dirty. Then, Jacob's mood changed drastically. He went from being his usual sunny self to acting like a teenage girl right before her period.

"Jake, is your thong too tight, bro?" Paul hooted, causing some guys to make "oooh" sounds.

"Yeah, Jake. You need to borrow a tampon from Bella? I'm sure she has some extras!" Jare-bear howled with laughter, as did the whole group, except for Jacob and I. My face felt hot, and I'm sure that it was as red as a tomato. Jacob looked like he could kill someone, really. I looked down at my lap in embarrassment, but still grinning.

"Shut up, assholes." Jacob growled aggressively. It was starting to get awkward, with Jacob's attitude in the sewer. The whole group had gone into an awkward silence. I decided that it would be best for Jacob if we scooted home.

"Well, I had a lot of fun today guys. Thanks for inviting me. And, even though Jacob doesn't look it, he had a good time, too." I said quickly to cover up for the awkward silence.

"Awww! You're going already?" Sarah pouted. The others looked up at me, expecting an answer.

"I really wish I could stay, but I've got some stuff I need to get taken care of at home. Sorry." I said to her, also pouting slightly.

"That's all right. It was fun with you here, Bella!" Sam said warmly to me, with his arm wrapped around Emily's shoulders.

"Thanks. See you guys!" I said as I dragged Jacob by the hand to the car. I stopped to grab our stuff on the way.

"Jacob, is something up? You seem a little… angry." I said cautiously, not wanting to set him off.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said, with a hint of snappiness in his voice. There was a pause. "Well, actually, I don't feel too good. I've felt kind of like I needed to throw up since the afternoon." He said, now sounding completely neutral.

"Oh." I replied. Then I added, "Do you want me to drive?" I offered.

"No, no. it's fine. I just want to get home and get some rest. I think I'll be able to shake this, whatever it is." He stated.

I climbed into the passenger's seat and threw our bags into the back. Jake started up the car and drove out of the lot. There was a moment of silence. I began to worry about if I had upset him in some way. As if he had read my mind somehow, he broke the silence.

"Bella, I'm sorry about earlier. I am not mad at you, I'm just taking out me angriness out on you and the other guys. It's not right, and I know that I looked like an ass back there. I hope I didn't embarrass you." he said sincerely. There was not a tone of sarcasm or anger in his voice.

"Aw, Jake, it's all right. I get like that too. Don't worry about it." I said, relieved that Jake was not mad at me.

"Cool. So, we're cool, right? You're not mad at me for being mad at you even though I wasn't really mad at you but it seemed like it?" he said rapidly.

"Uh… sure, Jake. We're cool." I said, confused at what he had spit our at me.

He laughed at my obvious confusion. I just realized that I loved his laugh. It mad me feel like laughing, too. When we reached the house, Jake got out with me and grabbed my bag for me. He walked me up to the porch and set my things down.

"Well, I hope you did have fun and you weren't just lying to make the rest of us feel good." Jacob joked. "Just kidding. I know you had a good time." He said pleasantly. I noticed how much I liked the sound of his voice. _'Stop it, Bella. He's just Jacob. Your trusty, rusty Jacob. Your lifelong FRIEND.' _He pulled me into one of his bear hugs. Even though he crushed me a little, I was grateful for it. I didn't know why I liked the hug so much. It was just a hug, right? Nothing to freak out about. Just a friendly hug from a friendly friend. He felt hot. Too hot. Like he had a fever. I put a hand on his forehead, and he released me.

"What are you doing, Bells?" he asked, a little awkwardness and irritation in his voice.

"You feel hot." I said, not realizing what I was saying until I had said it.

"Well, thank you Bella. You're pretty hot, too." He said, grinning slightly.

"I didn't mean it like that! I mean, like you have a fever or something!" I said quickly. "Honestly, Jake. Why would I say that to you, even if I did think you were hot?" I responded.

"I know, Bella. Just pulling on your leg. Relax. If I didn't know better, I would think you did think I was hot, by the way you're acting." he teased. I smirked at him.

"See you, Jake." He grinned at me and walked down the porch steps, chuckling still.

"See you, Bella." He called to me. I turned way and opened the door. I could hear the start of an engine behind me as I walked inside.

I hoped that Jacob was feeling all right. I really wished that it was just a cold, or that he had eaten something funny and just felt sick. Even though I had hoped and wished, my prayers weren't answered.


	7. Chapter 7

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

**I am really pleased with the amount of people who have been reading this story. You guys rock! But, as you can imagine, the story is going to be getting more and more complicated, and I might just need someone willing to be my beta reader. I know that this isn't everyone's cup of tea. It's just a thought. **

**Also, I am writing another story, called my ending and beginning. It's not doing so good, but that's not the point I want put out there. I have a poll on my profile that is relating to the story, and it's really important that I get some people to answer it. You need to have an account here to answer it. But, you don't have to have read the story to answer it. All it is asking is that you think is the coolest 'ability' that vampires have. I would be forever grateful to you if you filled it out!**

**Again thank you so much for all of those faithful readers that I have! I love you!**

**~princesslissie13**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! This is my first chapter with my new amazing beta reader! She's totally awesome! This chapter is when the story will really start to take off and get more interesting. I hope you like it! Please review! You know you want to! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything! I don't! I promise! Argh…**

**Bella POV**

As I watched Jacob's car leave the driveway, I felt uneasy. Something just wasn't right. The way that he had acted towards his friends was not the warm, sunny Jacob that I knew. And always, as he left my house, he would honk his horn a couple of times. But he didn't honk this time. I couldn't understand why that little problem plagued me for so long.

I tried to shake off the sense of anxiety that I had been feeling since Jacob had left my sight. I did laundry, took a bubble bath, picked out my clothes for school the next day, painted my toenails, read a book, listened to music, and watched Dancing With the Stars. Everything I tried to occupy myself with failed in distracting my paranoid mind. _Bella. Relax. He's probably fine. You are being totally crazy. It's almost like you're in love with him,_ I reassured myself. I was not going to let him get to me.

With a sigh, I flicked off the TV. I got up from the couch, cracking my knees in the process. Wow, I was getting old. I walked up the stairs, but did not go to my room. I went to Charlie's.

My knuckle rapped on the frame of his open door. He looked up from a sports magazine that he was reading. He smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners in a way that made my heart melt in a daughterly way.

"Hey, Bells. What's up, kiddo?" He said to me in a happy tone. I didn't stop in on him often, which is probably something I should have done more often.

"Hey, Dad. Um… I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to head off to bed." I said, grinning back at him.

"Okay, Bella. But, do you know that it's…" He leaned over to look at his clock. "… six thirty?" he said, sounding a little skeptical.

"Yeah, dad. I know. I'm just really…just really tired. I had a long day. I just want to go to sleep." I said, my eyes drooping a little.

Charlie's cynical look changed to an understanding one. He had apparently had some of those days himself, by the look on his face.

"All right, bud. Sleep well." He said, all look of curiosity out of his face. I smiled at him, grateful for him and his 'I don't want to know' type of personality.

"'Night, dad." I said to him. He looked back down at his magazine, and I took that as my cue to leave.

I crawled into my bed and threw the covers over my head. I attempted to block the image of Jacob's face from flooding into my mind. Attempt failed. I had been laying awake in my bed, thinking of him, for a long time. For at least an hour. He kept creeping up in my mind whenever I was sufficiently distracted with something else. It got annoying after a while. I finally decided that I would call him tomorrow after school to see if he was feeling all right. Then I would stop worrying, or rather, obsessing over him. _Hopefully,_ I thought.

Once I had settled on that decision, my thoughts of him vanished like smoke in the wind. I remember my last thought that night was about hoping not to have any lucid dreams about him. My wish was granted. I did not have any dreams over the night, not that I could remember.

I woke up the next morning with a headache. I took some aspirin, and the dull, throbbing pain faded within a half hour. I got all of my stuff ready to go to school with fifteen minutes to spare. I decided to hang out at the house until the time I normally left.

Taking a seat on the old, worn out leather chair in the living room that was facing a big window, Jacob came back into my thoughts. Staring out the window to my right, I wondered if he was feeling better. I was deep in thought when I saw it.

The blob.

Again.

This time, it was brown like chocolate. It darted just inside the tree line that surrounded the house. It was weaving between trees easily and fluidly. Since it was closer than before, I could see it more clearly then I had before. It had four legs, and it was big. Like a bear, or a dog. No, too big to be a dog. Almost too big to be a bear. Its' face was a blur, and like everything but the lags, I couldn't make out any distinct shapes or body parts.

Then it was gone. Like how my thoughts of Jacob dissipated last night, the wolf vanished like smoke in the wind. I could have blinked and missed the whole thing.

One thing that I did notice was that both of the blobs had a similar shape and speed at which they were moving. They were also spotted in the same general area.

_It's just ironic. They're not related things._ I tried to convince myself that the two blobs were not similar at all. Another failed attempt. I was refusing to believe that the blobs, or now as I thought, bears, were not related. I strongly thought that the sightings were related.

I glanced at the clock and saw that it was about time that I should get to school. I hopped in the truck and slammed the door loudly, hoping to scare away the 'bears' that I had been seeing around lately.

On the way to school, I did not see any suspicious blobs, and arrived on time. Angela and Jess would not be yelling at me today for being late. I walked down the hallway to where my locker was. I entered the combination in the padlock. But my locker didn't open. I sighed, knowing full well that my locker was stuck, as it tended to jam whenever I needed to do something or get something out quickly. I yanked on the handle with more force, and the door jumped open.

"Stupid frigin' locker. You're so temperamental." I muttered to it, a tinge of irritation creeping into my voice.

"Well, Bella, you know you're really losing it when you start talking to your locker like it's a person." A voice said to my right. I could already tell that the speaker was Jessica from the sound.

"My locker got stuck. Again!" I complained to her, stomping my foot in anger. She chuckled at me and my foot.

"Bella? Welcome to my life. I have to get a big, hunky football player to rip my locker open every time I need to open it. Not that I mind that…" Jessica said mischievously. She twirled a lock of hair around her finger like she did when she was trying to flirt.

"Oh, yeah. Totally. Most of the time, you can open that locker all by yourself, but you just like making the hot football players do it for you." I said to her, laughing at the end. She started to chuckle too. Our laughter got a little out of hand when some actual football players were climbing up the stairs from the locker rooms. They stared at us like we had seven heads or something. That made us laugh even harder.

Eventually, we got our laughter under control. She slung her arm around me as we went to our homerooms to put our books down. Angela spotted us at the door. She looked excited, and her cheeks were flushed.

"Hey guys. Guess what?" She said excitedly.

"What? Wait… is this about purple marshmallow?" I asked her. Purple marshmallow was our nickname for Ben.

"Yes! He was flirting with me, like the whole way here! Bella, telling me to pick him up for school since his car broke down is the best thing that you've told me to do in all of the years I've known you!" She gushed eagerly.

"Ang, are you wearing makeup?" Jess said, eyeing her dark eyelashes and shiny lips.

"Yes. Did I do it right or does it look stupid?" She said, sounding embarrassed but proud at the same time.

"Oh, it looks great, Angela!" Jess babbled. I agreed with her; Angela looked good. Jess had always told Ang that she would be amazing with a little makeup. Jess was right.

"I love it too, Angel! You look so pretty, doll face!" I said to her, pronouncing pretty like 'purdy' and doll face like 'dwoll fayce'. They grinned at my funny accents.

"Bella, you sound like drunk southern grandma." Jess said.

At that moment, the bell rang, indicating that the students should be in their homerooms. Jess and I walked to ours and Angela walked to hers. We had different homeroom teacher, based on the first latter of our last name.

The second bell rang, and then a nasally voice came over the intercom, reading all of the daily bulletins.

The day passed by so slowly after the morning that I wondered if time was going backwards. My mind often drifted back to Jacob, fretting about his potential illness. After what seemed like an eternity to me, the end of the day bell rang. I practically jumped out of my chair and was the first one out the door.

I yanked my bag out of my locker, which took several tries to open, and closed it quickly. Once I got out to the lot and got to my truck, about five minutes had passed. People were moving slower than cold molasses running uphill, an expression that I remembered my grandmother using on various occasions.

My truck had some trouble starting up, which was odd. I thought that I would have Jacob take a look at it and make sure that it was all right, as soon as he was well again.

The drive home also seemed like it took forever and a day, but I refused to speed more than necessary. Being the police chief's daughter, some beliefs had been instilled in me from a young age that would not fade.

Fifteen minutes later, I was reaching for the phone to call Jacob. Just as I was about to dial his number, I thought that I had seen the power flicker. I paused, and concentrated on seeing any more flickering. I waited about half of a minute, not wanting to get electrocuted or something if I tried to call him. I pressed the on button, and the house went dark. There was still light coming in from the windows from outside, but inside, the place was dim.

"Great. Just _great._ Now I can't call him." I said aloud, although no one was in the house to hear my words but myself.

I sighed and went outside to do homework. I thought that I could call him from my cell, but I remembered that I got no service here. I emptied out my backpack on the lawn and then sat on it like a chair. Then I began to do homework. About a half hour later, the lights came back on in the house. I rushed in and picked up the nearest phone. I dialed the memorized number and the phone was ringing on the line within ten seconds of when I entered the house.

Billy picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Billy. It's Bella. How's Jacob doing? When he dropped me off last night, he said that he felt sick." I said to him.

There was a pause. "Um… he's still pretty sick, Bells. I don't think that he can come to the phone right now, actually." he said, sounding morose.

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Will you tell him that I called?" I said, feeling bad for bothering Billy because Jacob was so sick.

"Sure, sure, Bella. I'll tell him. See you." Billy said, sounding just like Jacob.

"See you." I said. He hung up. Little did I know, he would tell Jacob that I called, but Jacob wouldn't call back.

**Dun dun dun… can you guys tell what's happening here? Please review! It will totally make me happy! **

**Have a happy Thanksgiving to those who are reading that celebrate it! Like my whole family on both sides is coming up and we're going to get a big family portrait, the first one since, like, 1992 or so. I'm so excited to see them! I haven't seen my little cousins since August! Yay!**


	9. Chapter 9

**This story is really coming along! I would like to thank my amazing wonderful fabulous beta reader, Bane of Princes! She's da bomb, dawg!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Where would anybody get the assumption that I own it, anyways?**

Jacob didn't call me back. Not once. It had been two weeks since I had called him. Earlier, I had thought to leave him alone, for he was probably still too sick to talk to anybody. I started to get a little skeptical when it got around to being day three. I was angry by the time day four with no contact with Jacob rolled around.

_He has to be getting better. Unless he's dead, there is no good reason for him to be ignoring me like this, _I thought angrily. I felt irritated with him, like he should be at least making some small attempt to talk to me. Similar aggressive thoughts swirled around in my head.

Just then, the phone rang. My heart skipped a beat, thinking that it was Jacob. I picked up the phone quickly.

"Hello?" I said, sounding breathless and hurried.

"Hey, Bella! It's Angela." I have never been more disappointed in my life. I loved Angela to pieces, I really did, but I was hoping to have heard Jacob's husky voice on the line.

My depressive tone of voice was very obvious to her when my dull response was, "Oh. Hey.". There was a moment of silence.

"Oh, hey? I see how it is, Bella. Maybe I should call less often if you're going to sound like a little kid who got coal for Christmas all the time." She snapped, half irritated and half joking.

"No, Ang, I'm glad that you called, really. I was just… hoping for someone else." I said quickly.

"Oh,_ really_?" Angela said, understanding my dilemma. There was another slight pause. Then the dam of questions broke. "Who? Is it a boy? Is he cute? Do I know him? Would I like him?" she somehow managed to squeeze all that out in one breath.

"No, Angela, it's not a _boy_ boy, but just a boy boy. Have you met Jacob Black? He's who I wanted to call me. He's sick, and I called him like, two weeks ago to see how he was doing and he didn't call me back." I explained to her.

"Oh yeah. Jacob. I hope he gets better soon." Angela could remember him clearly, I could tell. Alarm seeped into her voice. "You like him? Since when?" I sighed. Sometimes, Angela would jump to ridiculous conclusions. Actually, most of the time she would jump to ridiculous conclusions. But this time, I wasn't sure how to respond.

"I really don't know if I do. Normally, I wouldn't be waiting with bated breath for him to call. But then again, it has been two weeks since I called and left him a message with his dad. Maybe I'm just overly anxious, or something. I really have no idea of what's going on in my head at the moment." I concluded with a sigh.

"I think that you should call him again. Maybe his dad misunderstood you." Angela said automatically.

I questioned her answer. "Really? I don't want him to think I'm being obsessive, or that I'm madly in love with him, because I'm not. I'm just worried about him."

"I think you should. You said it's been four days. Right? One or two days, yeah, I can see that being obsessive. But two weeks without your friend calling you back? That's just showing that you actually care about him, Bella." Angela said in a soothing tone.

I thought about that for a moment. Jacob was one of the best friends I had. He would be calling me too, I was sure of it. "All right. I will. Do you think I should call him now, or do it tomorrow?" I asked her.

"I think you should call him now, if you're really worried about him, which I can tell you are. Trust me, Bella. He won't think that you're a stalker." Angela assured me.

"All right. See you tomorrow." I said, anticipating calling Jacob.

"Bye, Bella!" Angela said cheerily. I hung up.

I put the phone down and sighed. For some reason, I was nervous about calling Jacob. I fretted about whether he would be cranky that I was calling him. _Maybe he got a girlfriend, so he feels weird about calling me back. What if he got a lot worse, and he's like, hospitalized? Maybe he just doesn't like me anymore. What if he is mad at me for what happened when we were hanging out at the beach? Maybe I embarrassed him, or something._

I continued to worry about all of the possible negative outcomes of calling him for about fifteen minutes. I was brought back to reality when the front door slammed and Charlie clomped inside with his heavy boots.

"Hey, Bella. I hope you don't mind that I invited a couple of friends over for the afternoon." Charlie said casually as he hung up his jacket and put his hat in the drawers that we kept mittens and scarves and hats in.

"Um… no, Dad. I really don't mind. Who did you ask over?" I said uncertainly.

_Liar. You want to be all alone so you can call Jacob,_ I thought.

"Billy and a couple of his friends… and some of the guys from work." He answered offhandedly.

There was a pause. I was thinking about what I should do about contacting Jacob since Charlie and his friends would be here. Then, finally, I responded.

"Okay. Have fun." I said. There was another pause. "Is it okay if I go and see Jacob? He's been sick and I wanted to see how he's feeling." I blurted out, not even thinking about what I was saying.

"Um… sure, Bella. Don't be out for too long, though. It's a school night." Charlie said vaguely. His mind was obviously somewhere else.

"All right. See you, Dad." I said as I grabbed a jacket and my keys.

"Bye, kiddo!" Charlie called as I walked out the door.

It was starting to get dark outside and the crickets were chirping. I stopped traipsing to my car and tilted my head up to the stars that were just beginning to show. A light breeze stirred my hair, blowing a few strands into my face. I gently brushed them aside. Smiling slightly, I resumed walking to the car, a small skip in my step.

I started the car and backed out of the drive. The radio was already on and playing a soft rock station. Although the sunset had clamed me down somewhat, the nervousness that I had felt earlier returned to me, stronger than before. I tried to focus on something else. That didn't work. Turning up the music so it was too loud to hear anything else didn't work either. After what had seemed like forever, I pulled into Jacob's driveway. I could see the lights were on and there were people moving around inside.

I jumped down from the high seat in my truck and slammed the door shut. Each step I took towards his house got harder. I wanted to believe that I was doing the right thing, and that he would not think that I was being obsessive by coming to see him in person. But I just couldn't believe that.

I paused at the front door, trying to gather my courage. After a moment, I knocked. I could hear grumbling and talking on the other side of the door. Then, the door squeaked open, with Jacob holding the handle.

_He doesn't look like he's too sick to call. He looks just fine._ I surmised.

Jacob had gotten a haircut. Most of his long hair had been cut off, leaving a tiny bit on the top of his head. He looked bigger, like he had grown about three inches in the few weeks that I hadn't seen him. He looked bulkier, too. He looked much more muscular than when I had seen him last.

When he saw me on his porch, he looked shocked, and quickly adverted his eyes. Looking down at his feet like they held all of the secrets to life, he said sullenly, "Bella. You shouldn't be here."

"Why? Are you still contagious?" I questioned, trying not to sound offended. It hurt a little that I had waited two weeks for him to get better, and I was excited about finally seeing him, and he pretty much just said that he didn't really want to see me.

"No. You're just… not supposed to be here. You need to leave." Jacob said aggressively, still staring down at the ground. He sounded like he was going to have a meltdown or something else violent.

"Jacob… will you please look at me?" I said softly, trying to keep him calm.

"No." he said coldly.

"Jacob? Please." I said, trying to find the sunny guy that I had known before. He wouldn't show. I know that to some people, a cold gaze isn't the end of the would. But receiving a cold gaze from a guy like Jacob cut me like a knife. He just wasn't like that. He was usually so happy and friendly and loving. Today, he was just a shell of his former self. The only thing he left behind was a nasty attitude.

He shook his head at me and sighed angrily. By his body language, he was pretty much just saying, _no, I don't like you, _and_, yes, I want you to leave now and never come back._ Right then, my heart broke._ Is he seeing someone? Is that why he's so mean? Did I offend him? Did I upset him?_ I sighed, trying to hold in my tears. In the course of a year, I had managed to make not one, but two amazing people hate my guts. One being Jacob, and the other, Edward.

It was getting a little awkward to just be standing there, not talking, the tension as thick as a cement wall between us. I tried one last time to meet his eyes, but he wouldn't look up. My foot inched backwards, feeling for a step. I turned my back on Jacob as I stepped down the last couple of steps. I heard a sad sigh and the sound of clothing rustling against itself. An extremely warm hand closed around my wrist. Jacob turned me around so I was facing him.

Our eyes met. His were cold and miserable, like he hated himself for being mad at me. Now I knew that I was the reason for his bitter chagrin. Under his forlorn gaze, I felt about two inches tall. I looked down at my feet, wishing that I had never even come. This anger and sadness was not what I had expected, or wanted. I could feel my eyes beginning to tear up, although I had tried to blink them back.

"Bells?" Jacob's voice was soft and sweet. He curled his finger under my chin. I looked up and met his eyes, expecting to see burning fury in them. But instead, his eyes were filled with extreme guilt, and concern. He looked sincerely sorry for upsetting me.

"I'm so sorry, Bells. That was so mean." he said, sounding like he was about ready to cry himself. I was beyond confused. _Wasn't he just telling me to leave? Didn't he just look like he could kill someone? How is he so sad and sincere all of a sudden?_

"Bells…" He murmured as he pulled me into a tender hug. He was so warm. I felt like I was being enclosed in a heating blanket.

"Bella, I'm so sorry. I wish I had never said those mean things to you. Please, forgive me. I am so sorry. So sorry." Jake whispered in my ear as he held me tightly.

"I… I forgive you, Jake." I said, still confused. I still felt like I was going to cry a little, but not because of his bitter resentment. I felt like I was going to cry because no one had ever said anything like that to me. No one had ever really noticed when I felt like I was about to cry, except him. Somewhere, deep in my chest, I felt a pull towards Jacob, like my heart was moving on from Edward to something else. Like it was attaching itself to someone. And I think that someone was Jacob.

**Whoot whoot! Bella's finally getting a little smarter! Please review because it makes me happy!**


	10. Chapter 10

**I know, I know. I have so much explaining to do. Firstly, I am so sorry for not updating in forever. I had every intention of updating on Christmas week, but then… I don't really know what happened to me. I got a little depressed, and haven't really felt like myself for a long time. But, after a lot of thinking, I decided that it was more important to continue on with the story, because I probably had people who were reading my story and then stopped waiting for updates to come because they were so mad at me. ****J This chapter is dedicated to my followers who waited for any updates, if I even have any followers left. J enjoy!**

**Jacob POV**

I watched as Bella pulled her car onto my drive, and I could have just left. But I stayed. Sam Uley's sharp monotonous voice still rang in my ears. "You can't see that girl anymore. It's still too dangerous. You could hurt her." The thought of hurting Bella was too painful to imagine, so I didn't try to argue with him.

As soon as I had dropped Bella off at her house, I began to feel feverish and nauseous. I drove as fast as I could in an attempt to get home before a puked all over the car. I made it home on time, and as soon as I walked through the front door, I felt the urge to throw up. Dad, who had been watching some sort of game, wheeled down the hallway, white- faced, at the sound of my retching. My memory of that night from that point on was very foggy. My dad sounded like he was talking to me while I was underwater. I remembered he said, "Jake, are you all right, son?". That was when I lost all control of my body. I slowly lifted my head out of the toilet, filled with rage. I wanted to rip off his face as I said through clenched teeth, "Do I _look_ all right?". He laughed. That was what pushed me over the edge. I almost lost all control right then and there. In an attempt to control the impulse that was telling me to attack him, I clenched my fingers tightly around the seat.

It broke from the force of my rage induced fingers. I jumped up as pieces flew in my face. It was deadly quiet as the pieces fell to the ground. I stood up, and, not looking at my father, who looked absolutely terrified at my outburst, staring at the remains of the toilet seat that were scattered on the bathroom floor. I was even more mad than before. I started to shake violently. I ran to my backyard, and I didn't hear my father following me out the door. My shaking body vibrated more than before. I felt like I was having convulsions. My father watched as I changed. I stared in horror as my fingernails turned into claws, and as my skin turned into fur. Within seconds, I had gone from Jacob to a monster. I was a monster. _'Oh, God. What just happened to me? What's going on?'_ I thought.

I slowly turned my neck to look back at Dad, who'se face was contorted by shock and terror. With my eyes, I tried to tell him that I was sorry. For scaring him. For turning into a monster. For seeing me change. I bumped my nose against his hand that hung motionless by his side. He blinked in surprise at the touch. Our eyes locked. Then, I ran into the woods. I don't know why I ran like that. I just did. It was like an impulse, or an instinct. But it happened. And, within those five minutes, my life had been forever changed.

As I darted through the woods, voices started to call out to me. I didn't know who they are or where they came from, but they seemed to know what was going on with me. I was absolutely terrified.

"_Just stay calm, Jacob. You'll be back soon enough." _The voice somehow sounded familiar. Then I suddenly knew who it was.

"_Sam? Sam Uley? What the hell!" _I thought. I could hear some snickers from the back of my mind.

"_That's right, kid. I'm gonna stick with you until you are stable enough to change back." _He said smoothly.

Sam stuck with is word. While I was still a wolf, he kept talking to me, and giving me random bits of advice relating to the whole wolf fiasco. It took a long time until I finally felt calm enough to return to my normal state. When I did, I was shocked to see myself completely naked. I hadn't even noticed my clothes ripping away from my body when I changed.

'_Great, just great. Now you're alone, nervous, AND naked._' I thought. I wandered back to the house, my neck constantly craning around for any sign of people. When I reached the backyard, I totally panicked. How was I going to get into the house without being seen, naked, by my father?

An idea popped into my head, as sudden as a smack to the face. I could get in through the window of my room. It was on the ground floor, so I would be able to reach it easily. Gently, I pushed open the window, taking extra care to remain silent. Once it was open wide enough, I slid into my room with ease.

Ducking into my little closet, I pulled out some random clothes and threw them on. I silently padded out into the living room, where the TV was still on, and where my dad had fallen asleep. I shook him awake.

"Mmmm… what, Jake…." He said, his words slurred with his sleepiness. Then he straightened up, as though he had been shocked. "Jake? You're back."

"Dad. I'm sorry for what happened earlier. I can't believe that I lashed out at you like that. I-" He cut me off.

"Jake, I understand. You don't need to explain things to me. I already know." he paused, taking a beep breath, then continued. "Your great grandfather… he was like you, too. He changed, like how you just did out there."

"Well… Dad… There's another thing. Sam Uley was talking to me, from my head. I could hear him, like he was right there next to me, but I knew he wasn't. I could hear other people, too." I finished with a sigh.

Dad hesitated, his dark eyes scanning around the room as though trying to find the answers to my questions. He sighed and finally responded. "I… yes. I believe that there is some sort of telepathy going on between members of the pack. I was never like you, Jake. I don't know what it feels like to be like you. I only know the basics of being a werewolf. But I will try… to understand what you're feeling."

I had been picking at a string that was hanging off my shirt while he had been talking. I finally looked up to meet his gaze. "Okay." I said simply, trying not to show how much his words had meant to me. I gave him an awkward half smile at him as I turned and walked back to my room.

~O~O~O~O~

Several weeks had passed since then, since that day when I first had changed. I spent more and more time with Sam Uley and the rest of the pack, learning the ways of being a werewolf, or whatever you want to call it. Mostly, Sam had been lecturing me about self- control. He stressed how important it was to stay in control.

"Once you lose yourself," He had said one shady day in the woods, "you'll have a hell of a time getting it back. It's hard to reign yourself in once you've gone too far beyond your breaking point." Sam picked up a stick, and started to bend it, almost breaking it. "Like this twig. You see how I can bend it, but not completely break it? It will always snap back easily. But when you bend too far…"He then snapped the stick, and with a soft smile on his face he tried to put the stick back together. I rolled my eyes, wishing to be anywhere but there. I could control myself just fine.

During many of Sam's famous lectures, my mind had strayed to Bella. She had been completely forgotten during the first, difficult week. But now she had been resurfaced from the depths of my mind. Sam heard what I was thinking.

"Jake," He said quietly. I looked up, and to my surprise, his face was pained, not irritated that I was drifting again. "You can't see her. It's still too dangerous. You could hurt her." it hurt to think of not seeing Bella. She would be devastated, I was sure, if I didn't call her back soon. Reluctantly, I agreed. But somehow, I would find a loophole to my promise.

My loophole came sooner than I expected it would. My dad and I were just sitting around, watching the baseball game. I was almost asleep when I heard the knock on the door. "Jacob, could you get that, please?" my dad said. Grumbling, I stood up and yanked open the door. Seeing Bella standing there, on my porch scared me. I hadn't expected her to come. Quickly, I jerked my neck down so that I was staring at my shoes. I couldn't look her in the eyes. I couldn't. Sam had told me about imprinting and the dangers that it could induce.

"Bella. You shouldn't be here." I said flatly, in an attempt to cover up how I really felt about her being here.

"Why? Are you still contagious?" Bella responded, sounding a little crushed. I felt bad, giving her the cold shoulder, but it was for her own protection. I couldn't hurt her like how Sam had hurt Emily.

"No. You're just …not supposed to be here. You need to leave." I said as coldly as I could muster. It was tearing me up inside to treat her like I hated her. I was quite literally at war with myself over this girl.

There was a pause. When Bella spoke, her voice was so sad that it hurt me to hear it. "Jacob… would you please look at me?"

'_Oh god… not that question. Anything but that question.'_ I thought as cold, heavy dread spread throughout my body. "No." I said, trying to sound mean.

"Jacob? Please." Bella's voice cracked. Avoiding Bella was not as easy as Sam had told me that it would be. I forced my self to shake my head at her, still looking down at the ground. A tiny sigh escaped her lips. There was a long silence. Then, Bella turned her back and placed her foot on the step, intending to leave.

That was my breaking point. I wasn't just going to let her stand here and think that I hated her. Anger was now pulsing through my veins, as hot and real as the lava in a volcano. I needed her to know. She deserved to know. Before she could walk even farther away from me, I reached out and captured her little wrist. My black eyes found her chocolaty ones, and in that moment, the whole world seemed to stand still. I felt like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time, like a baby taking its first breath, like the sun rising after a year of rain, like balloon floating up, up, up to the sky. I felt like I had conquered the world, like I could do anything, as long as Bella was standing by my side. There is no word strong enough to describe what I felt, and what I still feel every time I look in her eyes. All I knew in that moment was how much I needed her to be with me forever.


End file.
